Valando Has Off-broadway Winner In Fly So Free

February 1, 1991|By DAVE JOSEPH, Racing Writer

HALLANDALE -- It is in the theaters along 42nd Street in New York where Thomas Valando has realized his greatest victories.

As an investor, Valando has been involved in a number of Broadway productions, including Jerome Robbins` Broadway and Neil Simon`s Rumors. He was also the music publisher of such Broadway scores as Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Sweeney Todd and A Little Night Music.

``I`ve had some winners,`` said Valando Thursday morning from his Palm Beach apartment. ``Yes, some huge successes, as well as some real horrors.``

But Broadway -- even opening-night on Broadway -- has not afforded Valando the kind of excitement or promise that thoroughbred racing has.

``Oh, sure, they`re a little similar in a sense,`` Valando, 68, said. ``But a horse race for me is so much more exciting. If you don`t make it with the critics opening night on Broadway you have no chance, but with a horse you can always come back. No experience on Broadway can match owning a horse, especially a horse like this one.``

This horse is Valando`s Fly So Free, who will make his much-anticipated 3- year-old debut Saturday in the Grade III Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

A son of Time for a Change, Fly So Free is the odds-on choice to win an Eclipse Award next week for being last year`s top juvenile off his victories in the Champagne Stakes and Breeders` Cup Juvenile. He also will be the likely choice to win the 7-furlong Hutcheson against the graded-stakes winners To Freedom and Richman.

``He`s doing great, and I expect him to run well,`` said Scotty Schulhofer, the trainer of Fly So Free. ``But I won`t be upset if he gets beat. I`m not pointing him for this race, but we do want to see him run good. The thing to remember is that I`m not looking for him to go seven-eighths. I`m looking for him to go 1/4 (in the Kentucky Derby).``

Valando is simply looking forward to Saturday. While the New York native was part of Dogwood Stable`s racing partnerships during the 1980s, Fly So Free was the first horse that he ever purchased. The price: $80,000. In six lifetime starts Fly So Free has earned more than $1 million.

``We were involved in a couple of partnerships with Dogwood, and a couple were sort of exciting,`` Valando said. ``We were part of (steeplechase champion) Inlander, and there were a couple others. I guess my experience with Dogwood encouraged me to get more involved in the business.``

Along with Mike Ryan, who acted as an agent for Valando when purchasing Fly So Free at Keeneland`s 1989 yearling sale, Valando bought a son of Slew o` Gold in 1988 named Golden Anthem. The colt, trained by Schulhofer and purchased for $100,000, was ``a real nice colt,`` Schulhofer recalled. But Golden Anthem never made it to the races. Unlike Golden Anthem, Fly So Free started and started fast.

He broke his maiden at first asking by 8 1/4 lengths at Belmont last May and was quickly hailed as New York`s most promising juvenile. Unfortunately, he followed his debut with a third-place finish against allowance company at Monmouth Park. After making amends July 8 at Belmont for his Monmouth mishap, Schulhofer saddled Fly So Free in the July 21 Tremont Stakes, where he finished fourth as the favorite.

In the Tremont, Fly So Free ``broke about two strides out of the gate and overreached,`` Schulhofer said. ``He went right to his nose and grabbed a quarter.``

After being given time to heal, Fly So Free came back to win the Oct. 6 Champagne and the Oct. 27 Breeders` Cup Juvenile. The colt`s name was back in lights.

``The Breeders` Cup was one of the most exciting moments in my life,`` Valando said. ``But, to be honest, him winning his first race was just about as exciting to me. That`s what happens in this business. You just get so involved with them.``

Valando`s involvement in racing is growing. Valando and his wife, Elizabeth, bought two yearlings besides Fly So Free in `89, and they now have eight horses and a broodmare. And Valando admits that, if all goes well, the lights in Louisville this May could be just as bright as the ones on Broadway.

HUTCHESON STAKES

The $75,000 (Grade III) Hutcheson Stakes will be run Saturday over 7 furlongs: